Malone wheless



(No Model.)

. M, WHELESS.

ELEGTRIG STREET RAILWAY SYSTEM.

No. 441,210. -Patented NOV. 25, 1890.

UNITED STATES PATENT EErcE.

MALONE VHELESS, OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, ASSIGNOR, BY DIRECT AND MESNEASSIGNMENTS, TO THE IVHELESS ELEO'IRIC RAILIVAY COMPANY,

OF ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA.

ELECTRIC STREET-RAILWAY SYSTEM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 441,210, dated November25, 1890.

Application filed March 15, 1890.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be itknown that I, MALONE IVHELESS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Nash ville, in the county of Davidson and State ofTennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in ElectricStreet-Railway- Systems; and I do hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enableothers skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

The object of my invention is an electric street-railway-condnit system.

The principal object obtained under this invention is the use of an openconduit in which is secured on insulated bearings a bare conductor notcontinuous through the conduit, but broken at convenient places, asshown in the accompanyingdrawings. These sections of the conductor undermy invention can have no current from the generator in them until thecar comes on a section, and then the conductor in the conduit can bevitalized or devitalized at the will of the person handling the car. Itis known that in practice open conduits for electric street-railwayscarrying a continuous conductor have proved inefficient from the factthat where a long bare conductor is exposed to water and mud,which willnaturally accumulate in a 0011- duit, the exposed surface presented isso large that the consequent escape of the current is so great from theconductor that the motor fails to get a sufficient quantity of currentto perform its function in the propulsion of the car. It has beendemonstrated by a practical work= ing-car under my supervision that ifthe conductor is segregated in lengths, say, of ninety (90) feet, theconductor may then be buried in water or mud and the working of the caris not perceptably depreciated. In this instance a current of fivehundred (500) Volts with a capacity of one hundred and twenty (120)amperes at the generator, and the car calling for an average oftwenty-five (25) amperes, the loss in the current was found to beexactly proportional to the difference between the resistance of themotor and the resistance of the water under which the con- Serial No.343,984. (No model.)

ductor was submerged. In other words, the current takes the metallicroute to the generator in preference to a route through the ground.

In my present invention the above principle is made use of in thepropulsion of electric street-railways.

It is easily understood that where a continuous line is used in a closedconduit the conductor must first be bare, so that the trolley from thecar can lead the current to the motor, and this fact of a continuousbare wire in the systems heretofore in use will allow an escape of thecurrent exactly proportional to the bare surface of the conductorexposed to the mud and water in the conduit. The escape of the currentnecessarily decreases with the exposed surface of the conductor, andwhere a bare conductor of not too great a length is used the working ofthe car is satisfactory in all respects, and the escape of cur- 7o rent,even where the conduit is filled with up water, does not seriouslyimpair the efficiency of the car.

Under conduit systems now in use a continuous conductor is kept chargedwith 'cur- 7 5 rent from the generator, and all cars on the line aredependent for their supply from this main and exposed conductor. Undermy sys tem I dispense with a continuous conductor and use insteadthereof a conductor made of separate sections. With these separatesections I use an insulated cable, which lies in the conduit and carriesthe current from the generator. From this cable the current is led intoany desired section by the use of electromagnets vitalizedvat will fromthe car. These magnets in the traps, as shown in the drawings, performthe function of coupling a conductor-section with the main line when thecar is on that section, and a distinctive fea- 9o ture of my system isthe fact that but one section is used by the car, although two or morecars can work on the same section. It is noticed, therefore, that thesegregated conductor used in my system is not charged with the 5 currentexcept for a very short distance, the current from the generator beinginthe insulated cable lying in the conduit and led from the insulatedcable to the conductor in the conduit when needed.

In the annexed drawings, Figure 1 is a plan View of the system, a trapwith the trap-magnets being shown in dotted lines at the left and a carwith local and motor circuits at the right. Fig. 2 is a cross-section ofan open conduit to be used with the system.

The letters A and B indicate two lines of railroad-track rails, thesections a a, &c., of the former being insulated, and the sections 1) b,&c., of the latterbeing electrically connected together, forming onecontinuous line. If desired, the line B may be connected at intervalswith a return-wire. Passing along between these lines A and B is an openconduit 0. This conduit is made with its mouth cat least as wide as, ifnot wider than, its inner part. \Vithin this conduit is placed the powerline D, which is covered or insulated; also, in the conduit is placedthe trolley-line E. This is an uncovered wire made in sections 0 c,850., disconnected or insulated from one another. These sections areplaced upon a support 6, which is properly insulated, as shown, at e eAt suitable distances apart are arranged the traps F. Each trap may beused for two sections, the one before and after it, as exemplified inthe present case; or a trap may be used for any desired number ofsections. In a trap F is placed the magnets f g, having the armaturesfg, each having the insulated heads with the forks f f g g The magnetsfare connected by a wire f with section a and by a wire f 5 with the lineB. The magnets g are connected by a wire 9 with the section a and by awire g 'to the line B, or, for convenience, with the wire f. Thepower-line D is made with contact-points cl d, and the sections 6 of thetrolley-1ine have contacts e 6 These cont-acts are arranged in pairs dcand cl (2 in juxtaposition with the forks f f and 9 y as shown.

Upon the car G the pair of wheels H II is to be insulated, and upon eachis secured the circular contact-plates h 7t. Upon the car is placed abattery I, from which "a wire i extends to one contact-plate h andanother wire t" to the other contact-plate 77,, there bein g in onewiresay t"a switch L. Upon the the car there is the usual motor M,having one wire 'm, extending to the contact-plate h, and another wirem, connected to the trolley N. This trolley projects under the car andcarries a wheel 11, which straddles the trolleywire E.

In use, as soon as the switch L is shut the local circuit is closed andthe current passes from the battery I through the wire i, plate 71,wheel H, section a, wire f magnets f, wire f line B, wheel II, plate h,and wire 2" to battery. As soon as this local current is turned on, themagnets f are vitalized and draw down the armature f As this is done,the forks f f rest in the contacts (1 and e, which turn on thepower-current through these contacts and the forked head into thesection 0 of the trolley-wire E, through the trolley N, wire m, motor M,wire m, plate It, wheel II, line B, and to the return-wire or ground.

Having described my invention, what I claim is The combination of acontinuous powerline, a trolley-line composed of sections i11- sulatedfrom one another, a car having thereon a motor-circuit in electricalconnection with the trolley-line, a local circuit, part of whichcontaining the source of electricity is on the car, and a switch betweenthe local and the trolley-line and power-line, whereby when the local isclosed a section of the trolley-line is connected to the power-line, asset forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

MALONE IVIIELESS.

\Vitnesses:

F. J. BUCKLEY, J. PAUL SMITH.

